490
edits
Changes
From BrethrenPedia
no edit summary
<div style="text-align: start;">Meetings began with Bill and Karen and two other families from the Maranatha assembly along with two additional persons. Within two years, nine believers formed the nucleus of a little assembly gathering on Sunday evenings in the Wolitarsky basement. In another year, the assembly had more than doubled and a large, twelve-room residence had been put at their disposal for the development of the work by Mr. A. R. Lite, an elder at Ebenezer Gospel Chapel. By the end of 1974, the little nucleus had grown to at least one hundred and the indoor swimming pool had seen numerous baptisms. In fact, the group baptized 146 in its first five years of phenomenal growth.</div>
The Grande Maison went on to reproduce itself no less than five times. By 1978, there were approximately 80 believers meeting in the Grande Maison itself at Duvernay, 70 at St-Vincent de Paul, 35 in the west end of Montréal, and 40 at La Source in St-Léonard. Two years later an assembly was begun at Rivière Beaudette, forty-five miles further to the west. This latter work was an outgrowth of one in the east end of Montreal and, as such, might well be considered to have been a grand-daughter of the Grande Maison. Terrebonne followed in 1982. These were all growing assemblies, all each one meeting in homes.
The Wolitarskys returned to California in 1982. As for the Grande Maison assembly, by the end of the 1980s it had ceased to exist, its work being carried forward by those assemblies to which it had given birth.